Armchair BEA: An Interview with Rebecca from kindle fever

Today is Day #3 of Armchair BEA 2011! (Not sure what that means? Check out the Armchair BEA site for details.) It’s my first year participating. Today’s topic is: Work the Network (blogger interviews)!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca from kindle fever. Rebecca’s blog was new to me, but as soon as I visited her site I was struck by her incredible enthusiasm. She’s clearly embraced books, reading, and blogging with open arms, a fact that’s obvious all over kindle fever.

Rebecca has an extensive “Who am I?” page on her blog, but I’ll tell you a bit here by way of introduction. Almost 19, she lives in northern Sweden, where at times the sun is only up for four hours a day. She’s working on her final year in the Swedish Gymnasium, studying natural science with the goal of becoming a Radiologic technologist. She reads books in both Swedish and English, though the latter is her preference. Oh, and she adores her Kindles…both of them!

On her blog, Rebecca shares the following, which I love:

“We had an assignment in school once, where we were asked to describe our life in six words and then make a picture slide of it. My words were: Live one life–experience a hundred, referring to the many adventures we can experience through books.”

Want to learn more about Rebecca from kindle fever? Read on!

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How did you get into book blogging?

It was after I’d found the site Goodreads.com and actually started rating and reviewing the books I read. I completely fell in love with it; the fact that I could go back and remember likes and dislikes for each books, as well as how I felt while reading them. Now I see it as a part of the reading experience. I created a blog to collect these reviews easily for my own benefit, but never dared making it “official.” When a lot of my GR friends started making them though, I thought: “Why not join in as well?”, went back to fix it up a bit and finally came out of the closet. 😉 And that’s the story of how I became a part of the wonderful blogosphere!

How long have you been blogging?

I’ve been officially blogging since the beginning of February 2011. It feels like a lot longer though!

From your blog name, it’s pretty clear you’re a fan of the Kindle! What makes you love it so much?

Oh yes, I adore my Kindles! I actually have two, haha. What makes me love it so much? Well, first of all it’s a wonderful way for me who lives in Sweden to be a part of the international book community, since it makes it so much easier for me to get hold of the books I want. The genres I read aren’t too popular over here (yet at least), especially not in English, so it usually takes between 1.5-2 weeks for me to get my books. Kindle solves this problem when you can easily just click the book home and get it right away! I know it might not always be cheaper for all US/UK-ers, but it usually is for me. It can be more than half the price I save when buying a Kindle book! So that’s great.

I also love that you can change font-size as well as spacing on the Kindle, which makes it so much easier to read when you’re tired after a way to long day in school. I’ve actually started to think it’s much easier on my eyes reading on the Kindle as well! My only complaint is that I can’t put the lovely books in my bookshelf anymore. But then, I just ran out of room recently as well, so it’s a good thing the Kindle actually takes care of that problem. And the fact that I don’t have to pack a bag with 3+ books anymore, as soon as I’m going away for some time! See—it’s perfect for this girl!

Has having an eReader changed your reading habits at all?

I can read more often. It’s much easier to bring the Kindle with me too school (the same goes for vacation trips) and pick it up during lunch breaks or other free periods. As I said earlier, I also get them around two weeks faster! I read way more outside now as well, since I don’t accidentally squish anymore flies between the pages (ew, I so hated that…) I read more books at the same time as well, since it’s easy to jump between two books without having to change the reading device at all. Oh, and I can get hold of specific books and genres I never could before—like more erotic ones.

Do you have favorite (and/or least favorite) genres?

Wow, I have a lot of favourite genres. But the main one: Romance. I devour most books as long as they contain romance! It can be anything from Paranormal Romance to Erotic Romance and setting varies from both Historical and Contemporary! Urban Fantasies and Dark Fantasies work as well if they do have romance in them, but it can’t only be action.

Least favourite genres have to be war-related books and biographies. War books feel too serious and awful (plus they usually aren’t too romantic from my experience) and biographies are all too “real” and serious as well. I need fiction; somewhere that I can escape from real life—not be reminded of it.

What books have been most influential to you as a reader?

I actually have different books influencing different genres and developing my current reading preferences. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer brought me into the paranormal reading, Anita Blake by Laurell K. Hamilton into the more Adult paranormal books and The Gardella Vampire Chronicles by Colleen Gleason into Historicals. But all in all, I think Anita Blake has influenced me the most. If not for that one, I would never have been brought in to the Adult books at all, no matter which genres, and that is definitely the kind of reader I am. I read Young Adult from time to time, but it’s not a favourite at all. Anita Blake also got me into really reading and was the reason to why I actually find what I like and daring to stick with it.

Do you have any quirky book-related habits you want to share?

Oh, haha. Well, if I love a book and the action starts to pick up, I have to be sure I read every single word and don’t miss anything! I can even go back and re-read some sentences if I’ve skimmed over them too quickly. I really don’t want to miss anything, but tend to speed up when the action does! I also have a hard time not looking ahead for different answers when this happens, but luckily the Kindle has put an ending to that!

I often make plans with myself when reading and always in percentage. For example, when I’m reading a book I have some trouble putting down and I really have to sleep, I make a deal with myself of how many % I’m allowed to read before I have to put it down. This only works when I actually listen to me though, lol. I also always take an average time on how long it takes me to finish 10% for each book, to make it easier deciding exactly how far I’m allowed to read!

Finally, I can never sit in one place while reading. I move around a whole lot and sometimes I’m not even realizing I’ve done it until I found myself in a whole new place. A recent example: I sat on a bean bag in one corner of my room when first starting to read and when I looked up a few chapters later, I was on my stomach on the floor, my legs under the bed standing in the opposite end of my room.

What book do you find yourself recommending most often?

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton, Night Huntress by Jeaniene Frost, Fever by Karen Marie Moning and Wallflowers by Lisa Kleypas. Always. There’s no specific order to them either; I usually bring all of them up and they’re the first ones I always think of when people want recommendations! Of course it also depends on who I’m talking to and what they like!

Besides reading and blogging, what else do you enjoy doing?

Cuddling up in front of the TV with by boyfriend and/or American Hairless Terrier! Also to hang out with my friends and just being our crazy selves together. Lately I’m also Skyping daily with a few fellow book bloggers I met at BBPCon! (http://bbpcon.blogspot.com/) They’re wonderful and I’m so glad I met them all! Conversations vary from squealing about books, to random craziness and plan-making, all the way to more serious issues.

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Thanks, Rebecca, for taking the time to answer my questions! Wondering where my interview is? Margot of Joyfully Retired took care of it!

If you’d like to answer one of the above questions in the comments, I’d love to learn a bit more about you. After all, it’s interview day!